Bryan Brasher: If the black panther were really out there, wouldn't hunters have seen it by now?

A few years back while writing a column on the infamous "black panther" that many believe is roaming the woods of the Mid-South, I paraphrased some comments from a conversation I'd had with a good friend of mine from Bartlett named Bill Cooksey.

The conversation was about an animal he'd caught a glimpse of years earlier, and what he actually said was that he'd seen a large, dark-colored critter that "impressed him as a cat but could have been lots of other things."

By leaving out a word here and there, I made it sound like he was convinced he'd seen a black panther in the wild.

That's a big mistake.

Die-hard outdoorsmen like Cooksey choose their words carefully when it comes to the subject of the black panther because they know, perhaps better than anyone else, that the much-talked-about critter probably just isn't out there.

If it was, hunters would have concrete proof by now.

Mid-South hunters are as devoted as any group of outdoorsmen I've ever been around. I thought the bass anglers of the Chattahoochee Valley were a die-hard bunch, but they've got nothing on the hunters around here.

While hunters in other parts of the country work all week and then spend their weekends in the woods, many Mid-Southerners hunt every day — either by going in to work late after a morning hunt or leaving work early for an evening hunt.

They spend countless hours in the woods during hunting season. Then during the offseason, they spend even more time managing their property for the next season.

If there was a major population of large, black predatory cats lurking around the Mid-South, a hunter would have seen one by now. With the cellphone cameras and pocket-size digital cameras people have these days, someone would have gotten photographic proof from a tree stand or an enclosed blind.

Even if these panthers were elusive enough to avoid being seen by an ever-present army of experienced hunters dressed in full camo, the cats would eventually have to die, right?

As much ground as hunters cover, I'd have to think someone would have at least found a panther carcass.

Then there's the matter of infrared trail cameras — and to me, it's the most telling evidence that black panthers are nothing but a good, juicy myth.

Trail cameras attach easily to tree limbs and automatically snap pictures of everything that walks by. They sell for as little $50, and I know people who keep dozens of them operating on their property year-round.

Through the years, the cameras have snapped some incredible photos of things like escaped zoo animals, raccoons attacking wild hogs and even some shadowy figures people claimed were ghosts. But as many cameras as there are hanging around the Mid-South, we've yet to see a credible picture of the black cat that has come to be known by many as "The Southern Bigfoot."

Notice I said "credible picture." The one that caused such a buzz on the Internet back in November doesn't fit the definition.

It was supposedly a trail camera picture of a black panther that was snapped in Carter County in eastern Tennessee. But it was actually a random photo pulled from the Internet that has been used to perpetrate numerous hoaxes around the country the past few years.

I'll be reluctant to believe the black panther exists until I see some credible evidence or hear a credible account from someone with no hidden agenda and nothing to gain.

I'd like it to come from a hunter — and I'd like his or her words to leave no doubt.